Listing Your Debts and Planning Repayments

Listing your debts means writing down every amount you owe — each balance, interest rate, monthly repayment and loan type — and adding them into one total, so you can plan repayments in a deliberate order. This matters to anyone carrying two or more debts — credit cards, a personal loan, a tax loan or a mortgage (a loan secured on your home) — who wants the full picture before deciding what to repay first.

This article is AI-generated and AI-checked. It is general information, not investment or lending advice. Figures and guidance are as of 8 October 2026; the method follows IFEC Money Essentials guide "6 ways to get out of debt" (retrieved 8 October 2026).

Step 1: Build a debt inventory

A debt inventory is a single list of everything you owe. For each debt, record four fields:

• Balance — the amount still unpaid today.
• Interest rate — shown as the APR, or annual percentage rate, meaning the yearly cost of borrowing as a percentage.
• Monthly repayment — at least the minimum payment, the smallest amount the lender accepts each month.
• Type — secured or unsecured: a secured loan is backed by an asset the lender can take, while an unsecured loan has no such collateral.

Leave nothing out: cards, personal loans, overdrafts (a facility that lets your bank balance go below zero), instalment plans (splitting one purchase into fixed monthly payments) and money owed to family all belong on the list.

Step 2: Total it and match it to ability

Add the balances for your total debt, and add the minimum payments for your required monthly outflow. Your repayment ability is what remains each month after living costs and set-asides — money put aside regularly for bills that arrive once a year. A workable repayment goal is based on this ability, not on a wish.

Worked example — illustrative figures only

Every number below is a round, illustrative figure, not any real product's terms.

A tax loan is a short-term loan offered around tax season, with rates and terms that must be checked in the actual offer.

1. Total debt: 40,000 + 100,000 + 60,000 = HK$200,000.
2. Required monthly payments: 2,000 + 3,000 + 5,000 = HK$10,000.
3. Repayment ability: assume income HK$25,000, living costs HK$11,000, and a HK$6,000 annual insurance bill set aside at HK$500 a month — counted once, not again as a separate annual bill. Ability = 25,000 − 11,000 − 500 = HK$13,500.
4. Surplus (money left after minimums): 13,500 − 10,000 = HK$3,500 a month.
5. Order the repayments: pay all minimums, then point the HK$3,500 surplus at one target. The avalanche approach targets the highest APR first — here the card, the debt growing fastest; the snowball approach targets the smallest balance first for a quick win. Neither is universally right — pick the one you will keep following.
6. Rough timeline: ignoring interest for simplicity, 200,000 ÷ 13,500 ≈ 15 months; with interest it takes longer. This is a simplified illustration only.

Common mistakes

1. Missing debts from the list. Card instalments, overdrafts and buy-now-pay-later plans (BNPL — paying in instalments at checkout) are easy to forget. Correct reading: check every bank app and statement; what is not listed cannot be prioritised.
2. Treating the minimum as the real cost. A minimum payment can mostly cover interest, so the balance falls slowly. Correct reading: compare APRs to see which debt grows fastest, and send spare cash there.
3. Double-counting or forgetting annual reserves. Counting a HK$500 monthly insurance set-aside and the HK$6,000 annual bill understates your repayment ability. Correct reading: each annual cost becomes one monthly set-aside, listed once.
4. Setting a goal detached from ability. A payoff date copied from someone else rarely survives your own budget. Correct reading: base the date on your repayment ability and revise it when income changes.

Checklist: what to do next

• Pull the latest statement for every card and loan.
• Record balance, APR, minimum payment and type for each.
• Add the totals and compare them with your repayment ability.
• Choose an order — highest APR or smallest balance — and consider additional repayments only after checking that partial early repayment is allowed, its fees and the net interest saving. Assume no such fee or restriction only for this illustration.
• Set a target date and review the list every three months.
• If useful, compare debt consolidation options — replacing several debts with one loan — on Jolvex's comparison pages.

Figures and guidance as of 8 October 2026. AI-generated and AI-checked; general information only, not lending advice.